"It's dangerous to assume that this age group, as they move into their older years, will behave as their parents and grandparents did," he said.

"More people are choosing to come back into the labour market on a part-time basis. We're seeing people more likely to travel and do a range of things quite unique to their generation."

Mr Jarvis says for the first time 65-year-olds are seen as a significant part of the workforce.

"Turning 65 is a big milestone is terms of age information," he said.

"When we talk about the working population, we generally talk about 16 to 64-year-olds, so this is the start of a really big cohort of people moving outside what we would consider the working age population."

The ABS figures found the country also had its biggest population growth in three years.

The general population increased by more than 360,000 last financial year, taking the total to 22.7 million.

Migration added more than 200,000 people to the population, representing a 22 per cent increase on the previous financial year.

Western Australia is close to breaking Queensland's record for interstate migration, recording an increase of 78,000 people.

Free trade is the oldest argument in federal politics and the issue that literally defined the federation era but opposition exists to the TPP, courtesy of the Investor-State Dispute Resolutions clause.